New Delhi: Minorities, women and the economically backward can now look forward to “better representation” in railway jobs with minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announcing to develop a new scheme for them.

The railway minister said separate special recruitment drives will also be conducted to fill up vacancies of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and physically challenged.

“It is proposed to develop a scheme to give better representation to minorities, women and economically backward classes of society in railway jobs,” Banerjee said while presenting the budget.

Noting that she had received some observations regarding the functioning of Railway Recruitment Boards, Banerjee said the recruitment policy and its functioning will be reviewed shortly.

“Special recruitment drives will be launched to wipe out backlog in filling up the vacancies of SCs/STs...A special recruitment drive will be launched for filling up the vacancies against physically handicapped quota,” she said.

Banerjee also said that sports persons will also get “their share” in recruitment.